DETECTIVES investigating a post office robbery in Rishton are appealing for help identifying two people who may hold vital clues.

Officers are trying to trace a couple who are believed to have seen a getaway car leaving the robbery in High Street last Friday.

Thieves targeted the branch at 5.30pm when the postmaster was closing up for the day.

Three offenders wearing white crime scene investigator style suits and full face masks entered the post office through the back door, threw a sheet over Mohammed Iqbal, 31, and tied him up, police said.

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He was later discovered by his sister when she became concerned that she could not contact him.

The thieves stole a ‘substantial amount of cash’ from the safe and drove off in the victim’s Vauxhall Corsa which was later found abandoned in Eachill Road, around 400 yards away, just 30-minute after the ordeal.

A police spokesman said: “We are trying to identify a couple who were walking up George Street from High Street and stopped to allow the stolen Vauxhall Corsa drive out of the garage from the Post Office and turn right onto George Street.”

The post office, on the corner of High Street and George Street, had £33,000 stolen during a similar incident last November which left Mr Iqbal’s sister and business partner, Saima, injured.

The building and part of George Street were cordoned off after the incident.

The post office was closed over the weekend, with a PCSO guarding the door.

Anyone with information is asked to call 101.